WORKATION...PART 1

WE'RE BACK!  Yay, we have made it back from our camping trip.  We took a four day weekend to Warsaw, Missouri, home of the Harry S. Truman Dam and reservoir.  Also home to pretty much the biggest lake in Missouri.  Truman Lake which connects to Lake of the Ozarks.  It is a gorgeous lake with blue waters and lots of fun things to do.  Surprisingly enough I did not take any pictures of the main lake.  Shucks, I really wanted you to see it.  I didn't even take any pictures of our campsite...but there really wasn't much to see there.  Just a plain ol' campsite.   I did however take a few pictures from some of our adventures.

Today's adventure is at the Harry S. Truman visitor center.  They have lots of fun things to see and do there.

Let's start with a little history...Lake of the Ozarks and Truman Lake are man made lakes.  When the digging began an exciting discovery was made...Mastodon bones!  Apparently Missouri was home to Mastodons. Yes that's right, and the diggers found a huge Mastodon burial ground.

Mastodons were elephant like creatures only much larger.  They are most commonly known as the "Woolly Mammoth" and we had them right here in the good ol' US of A.  Right here in Missouri.  SO COOOOLLL!

The visitor center exhibits life size examples of some of the Mastodon bones that were found many years ago when the lake was in the making...like this life size tusk...

It's hard to tell here but this tusk is almost 5 foot long...that's HUGE!! And just take a look at this partial jawbone...It's GINORMOUS!

There was also a piece of a leg bone on display.

This is just a small, very short part of a Mastodon's leg and yet it was huge!  I couldn't imagine meeting one of these guys in real life.  Talk about feeling 2 inches tall, being around one of these guys would totally do that.  Thank goodness they were here before we were.

The upstairs exhibit is where you can get a bird's eye view of the dam and lake in the windowed conservatory...

Sorry I did not get any good shots of the whole conservatory.  It is a round room with windows all around so that you can see the lake and dam from just about every vantage point.  It is completely breathtaking and there is no way a few of my pictures could come close to doing it justice.  It was also a very cloudy day and picture taking was horrible.

This is the dam and power plant.  The dam and power plant provides all the electricity for the entire lake area.  It is huge and provides such a great service.

There is a swimming area just off one side of the dam.  A great place to swim but not on a stormy day for sure.

The visitor center is always such a fun place to visit when we come to Truman Lake and we can never leave without meeting the "Ranger"...

Who says..."Please remember to wear your life jacket"

Well that's it for Part I of my workation.  Part II will come soon and if you are ever in or near Warsaw, Missouri be sure to stop by the Harry S. Truman visitor center because as you will see in Part II, they have more than just a conservatory to visit.  Stay tuned!!!